


Sex Drive

by AllDaveKat



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - College/University, Bus Sex, Embarrassment, Greyhound Bus, Karkat Vantas Has Self-Esteem Issues, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Mutual Pining, Omega!Karkat, alpha!dave - Freeform, idiots to lovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:47:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28127109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllDaveKat/pseuds/AllDaveKat
Summary: Karkat is an omega who forgets his heat suppressants on a long bus trip.
Relationships: Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas
Comments: 20
Kudos: 139





	Sex Drive

**Author's Note:**

> this fic is just another excuse to indulge my bus kink, this time in A/B/O flavor

It’s the ungodly hour of 6 am, the sky is still dark, and it’s below freezing outside. Karkat Vantas yawns and rubs his eyes with a gloved hand, watching his breath condense in the air, as he stands in line with a dozen or so strangers outside the bus station.

If it were up to him, he wouldn’t even be going home for winter break this year. He’d be happier just staying on campus, enjoying the peace and quiet, and catching up on his busy fanfiction writing schedule. But ever since Kankri moved out last year, Karkat knows their dad has been pretty fucking lonely, though he tries not to show it, so when he called last week and asked if Karkat could come home for Christmas, Karkat had held in a groan and assured him that of course he would.

Looking back, he might not have agreed so easily if he’d known how difficult it would be to get a last-minute ticket. All the flights were either booked or cost a small fortune, and train tickets were sold out too, so Karkat was forced to do what no sane person ever wants to do: buy a ticket on the greyhound bus.

Miraculously, the bus pulls up only a few minutes late, which brightens Karkat’s mood by a tiny amount. He finds a seat near the back and sticks his backpack on the aisle chair to deter anyone from sitting next to him. He settles in with his headphones on just as the doors begin to close, content to have secured a single seat for at least this leg of the journey, but just as the driver starts to pull away from the curb, someone runs up to the door and bangs their hand on it desperately.

Karkat rolls his eyes as the driver stops to let the guy on, then he realizes he actually knows him--it’s Dave Strider, an alpha who goes to Karkat’s college.

They aren’t exactly friends, but they have enough friends in common that Karkat’s spent an unfortunately large amount of time around him over the past couple years. Unfortunate both because Dave’s an insufferable prick, and because he’s frustratingly attractive and very much aware of it. He’s also painfully out of Karkat’s league, which makes it all the more insulting and humiliating how he basically never stops hitting on Karkat whenever they’re in the same room. As if anyone in their right mind would flirt with Karkat for real.

He knows better than to take any of it seriously, but somehow he’s still managed to develop an embarrassing, misguided crush on Dave. Not that he’d ever tell him, of course, he’s not _that_ much of a masochist.

Dave flashes the driver his ticket and turns to find a seat on the now mostly full bus. Karkat looks away quickly but it’s too late, Dave’s spotted him and is grinning obnoxiously. Karkat glares back at him as he walks down the aisle and shoves his suitcase right above Karkat’s seat.

“Well hello there, I didn’t know my ticket came with a cute traveling companion. Mind moving your shit so I can start getting my ass nice and intimately acquainted with this seat? Otherwise it’s gonna be a long thirty-something hour ride if you make me stand in the aisle. I mean, I’ll do it, as long as you promise to catch me when I inevitably fall over and smash my skull onto the floor.”

Karkat sighs and moves his backpack. “Fuck off, couldn’t you have showed up just thirty seconds later? I swear to god if you try to talk the whole time I will actually strangle you, don’t even try me right now.”

“Ooh, I didn’t know you were kinky like that, Karkat.” Dave waggles his eyebrows and sits down, stretching his long legs out in front of him. His shirt is riding up slightly, and a flash of bare skin above his waistband taunts Karkat before he pointedly looks away.

Dave’s scent fills the air around him, too, and he smells fucking delicious just like he always does. God, he’s so hot, and Karkat hates it. He just wanted to be left alone and read his romance novels and now he has to sit next to this annoyingly attractive boy and be _social_ for what sounds like the entire fucking trip.

“Shut the fuck up. Why are you even on this bus? Doesn’t your family live in Texas or something?”

“My dad does, but I don’t see him much anymore.” Dave’s mouth flattens and Karkat wonders if he shouldn’t have asked, but then Dave continues on. “Nah, I’m heading to Oakland to visit my bro and his boyf. Or ‘fiance,’ whatever. I usually stick around campus but I haven’t seen him in almost a year and that shit just ain’t right, gotta set things straight even if it’s setting me back a couple hundred smackeroos.”

Oh shit, Dave’s going to Oakland? That’s Karkat’s stop too. His stomach sinks as he realizes this means he’s going to be sitting next to Dave for the next thirty-four hours straight. Fuck, what kind of deity did he piss off recently to earn this punishment??

Okay, maybe he’s overreacting a little. Dave’s not… _that_ bad. He’s not actually a horrible person or anything, he just has a way of getting on Karkat’s nerves with every fucking thing he says. But it’ll be fine. It’s just one fucking bus ride, anyway, how bad could it really be?

“Your dad lives in Oakland too, doesn’t he?” Dave says, interrupting Karkat’s thoughts.

“What? Yeah, he does. Wait, how’d you even know that?”

Dave shrugs and pulls out a beat-up looking pair of headphones. “John or somebody mighta mentioned it, I dunno.” Karkat’s sure he’s imagining it, but for a moment he thinks Dave’s cheeks look a little pink.

Over the next couple hours, to Karkat’s surprise, he discovers that Dave’s not actually a terrible seatmate. He doesn’t hog the armrest and he spends most of the time unobtrusively listening to music and tapping his foot softly on the floor. Karkat’s able to lose himself in his book until the driver pulls into a rest stop to let them buy lunch.

Dave gets up to let Karkat into the aisle, but then sits back down instead of following him off the bus. Karkat stops and frowns, ignoring the person behind him who clears their throat angrily.

“Didn’t you want anything to eat? It’s gonna be awhile before we stop again.” He doesn’t know why he’s even fucking bothering to ask, Dave can take care of himself, it’s not like Karkat has any sort of responsibility over him. He’s not _Dave’s_ omega. He’s not anybody’s omega, for that matter.

Dave shakes his head. “Nah, I ate a huge breakfast, I’m all good dude.” He smiles, but something about it isn’t very convincing.

Karkat doesn’t stay to argue, but he can’t help beginning to wonder about Dave’s financial situation. He knows Dave works stupid long hours at a club, even during the school year, because Dave always brags about the hot omega and beta chicks that hit on him while he’s working. Karkat assumed he worked there because he _wanted_ to, but maybe that’s not actually the truth. He thinks about what Dave said about not seeing his dad, and about how expensive he knows their college tuition is, not to mention the on-campus housing.

For whatever reason, he ends up buying two sandwiches, plus a couple bottles of water and a coffee. If Dave really doesn’t want the food, Karkat will just eat it later, it’s whatever. When he gets back to his seat, he shoves the sandwich into Dave’s hands without making eye contact.

“If you don’t want it, you don’t have to eat it, but I’m the one who has to sit next to you and I don’t want you getting hungry and trying to gnaw my arm off or something,” he grumbles.

Dave stiffens, but he takes the sandwich. “Yeah, I guess I could eat something if it helps soothe your nerves. Road safety is important, after all.”

Karkat ignores him and starts eating his own food, and after a moment, Dave unwraps the sandwich and starts eating, too. Karkat feels a warm satisfaction settle over him and tries not to think about what he knows it means. He finishes his lunch and downs his coffee so he can get back to his book as soon as possible.

After a little while, he feels his eyes growing heavy and the words start to swim on the page. He yawns and tries to get his vision to focus, but finds himself reading the same lines over and over, his mind heavy with exhaustion. It’s kind of weird, he doesn’t usually sleep on public transportation--or in general, really--but right now he can barely keep his fucking eyes open.

He guesses it’s probably safe to drift off for a few minutes. Dave won’t let anything happen to him, right? He sets his book down in his lap and closes his eyes.

The next time he opens them, Dave is gently shaking his shoulder and looking at him with concern. “You okay? You were making some weird noises in your sleep, man. Sorry if you didn’t wanna be woken up, I just thought maybe you were having a nightmare or something.”

Karkat frowns and shakes his head. “It’s fine, I didn’t want to sleep long anyway.”

He doesn’t remember having any dreams, but he does feel kind of weird and sweaty and uncomfortably hot. Sort of dizzy, too. He hopes he’s not getting sick.

He fans himself with his book but it doesn’t help at all. Sweat is starting to trickle down his back, ugh. He doesn’t want to take off his sweater, but he also doesn’t want to sweat through it and have to sit next to Dave in a stinky sweaty shirt for the rest of the trip, so he grits his teeth and pulls it over his head, leaving himself in just a t-shirt and jeans.

He tries not to feel disappointed when Dave doesn’t make any flirty remarks like usual. Dave’s probably never seen him without his baggy sweatshirt on, and now that he’s seen how repulsive Karkat really is, he can’t even joke-flirt with him.

Even stripped down to his T-shirt, Karkat still feels uncomfortably warm, and Dave smells way too fucking good right now, jesus. Karkat’s cheeks flush and he starts fanning himself again, trying to clear the air and cool himself down.

“Is it just me or is a million fucking degrees in here?” he complains.

“‘S probably just cause you’re sitting next to me. Don’t worry though, I’m too hot for most people to handle, it’s not just a you problem.”

Karkat can’t stop looking at Dave’s stupidly attractive little smirk. “Very fucking funny.”

“Actually now that you mention it, you do look kinda sweaty as all fuck.” Dave leans in to look closer at Karkat, who pulls back with a scowl, pressing himself up against the window. “Shit, do you have food poisoning or something? I bet it was that sandwich. Oh man, and I ate one too. Wow, I can’t believe you gave us both food poisoning on a thirty-hour bus trip, way to go, dude. Lemme check your temp, maybe you have a fever.”

Dave reaches his hand up to Karkat’s forehead and Karkat bats it away angrily. “It’s not fucking food poisoning, idiot. Forget I said anything, I’m fine, I feel fucking perfect.”

“Whatever you say, just don’t expect me to go easy on you in a couple hours when we’re fighting over who gets to use the disgusting bus toilet first,” Dave says with a shrug.

Karkat frowns. His stomach feels fine, honestly, it’s just the rest of him that feels wrong. Everything is oversensitive, and he can’t stop smelling Dave’s scent, and the sounds of the bus are too loud in his ears, and he inexplicably wants to curl up and cry, which is both horrifying and makes no fucking sense at all. He wants to hide in the bathroom until he stops feeling like this, but Dave’s right, bus bathrooms are always a nightmare of horrifying sights and smells. Also, that really wouldn’t help his case in convincing Dave he doesn’t have food poisoning.

He doesn’t know what _is_ wrong with him, though. Honestly, it almost feels like the first and only time he went into heat, but he knows that can’t be it, since he’s been on heat suppressants for years, so... wait. Fuck.

His _heat suppressants_.

Karkat’s blood runs cold as he remembers the bottle of pills, which is still sitting on his bedside table back in his dorm. Shit. _Fuck!_

He can’t believe he left them at home, he’s so fucking stupid, jesus shitlicking christ. Did he even take them last night? He can’t remember, his head is foggy, his thoughts slipping away before he can get a grip on them.

What the fuck does he do now? Maybe he can get off the bus at the next stop and try to find a drugstore, see if they can call his doctor to fill an emergency prescription? But he’ll have to try to book another bus ticket home then, assuming any are available, and possibly risk being stranded in some random fucking town for the night all by himself. He’s not some kind of wimpy helpless omega who’s afraid to travel alone, but he’s also not stupid, and he knows spending the night in an unfamiliar bus depot is a bad fucking idea. Especially if he ends up going into full-blown heat, fuck, no way in hell, he’s not risking that.

Maybe he’ll be okay until he gets to his dad’s house. He’s not sure how long it’ll take for his heat to start, since he wasn’t exactly taking notes the first time it happened. He checks the time and calculates that they’ve been driving for six hours, which means he has roughly twenty-eight hours left to go.

He’s clear-headed enough still that he can recognize the chance of getting home before his heat fully hits is pretty fucking low. But he doesn’t know what else to do, and more than anything, he doesn’t want to leave Dave’s side. Even though he has no fucking right to feel that way, his instincts are insisting that he’s safer here, with ~~his~~ an alpha to protect him, than he would be anywhere else.

\---

Dave is beyond excited to be going home for break. Not “home” as in the Houston apartment he grew up in, but the one Dirk and Jake share in California, which was technically only Dave’s home for about four months between his 18th birthday and the start of his freshman year of college, but it still feels more like home than anywhere else does, so.

Anyway, it’s been way too fucking long since he’s seen his brother, and just as long since he’s had any sort of a vacation. He couldn’t afford to take time off work this summer to visit, but he’s been taking on extra shifts all semester, and he managed to scrape together just enough for a bus ticket home. Traveling Greyhond isn’t exactly the pinnacle of fucking luxury, but it’s the first break Dave’s had in what feels like forever, and he plans to enjoy it all. Even if he did start it off by sleeping in and almost missing his fucking bus like a chump.

But it’s all good because he _didn’t_ miss the bus, and even better, he scored a seat next to Karkat Vantas of all people.

Dave first met Karkat in their freshman year, when Karkat got paired up with John as a lab partner in chem class. John had immediately adopted Karkat into their ever-expanding group of friends, and ever since then he’s been a fairly permanent fixture in Dave’s life.

Which would be great, since Karkat’s fucking adorable and hot and fun to talk to and basically everything Dave’s ever wanted in his life, except that unfortunately he also hates Dave’s fucking guts with the passion of a thousand burning suns. Well, maybe that’s not completely true; there have been a few conversations over the years that made Dave think Karkat might not entirely hate him, but anytime Dave tries to flirt or compliment Karkat or indicate any kind of interest at all, Karkat shuts him down hard. There’s a federal dating deficit in the Karkat economy and Dave’s permanently on furlough.

It’s all good though, Dave’s a grown-ass alpha who can handle a little rejection. And he’ll totally get over Karkat, someday, probably. Like maybe after they graduate and drift apart and Karkat gets married to someone else and Dave never gets to see him and his stupid adorable grumpy face ever again.

Fuck.

Okay, so maybe he’s not completely okay with it. Maybe he’s actually been pathetically pining after Karkat for the better part of two years now, despite John and Terezi’s constant attempts to set him up with literally _anyone_ else. And maybe, if he’s being totally and completely honest, the whole Karkat situation is part of the reason Dave’s on this shitty bus right now in the first place.

See, visiting Dirk isn’t the entire reason why Dave wanted to go home so badly. He does miss his bro, of course, but he also knows Karkat’s dad lives in the same city, which gave him an idea. Not that he’s like, stalking Karkat or anything, fuck no.

He just thought maybe if they both happened to be there over the break, that he could work up the courage to actually ask Karkat out on a real date instead of this bullshit pseudo-flirting he’s been failing with for months.

He never expected to end up on the same bus as him, though. But maybe this is the universe’s way of telling Dave to give it a shot. Or maybe he’ll put his foot in his mouth like he always does and permanently ruin any chance he has with Karkat. Assuming he even _has_ any chance in the first place, which he’s pretty sure he doesn’t.

He refuses to get his hopes up when Karkat buys him lunch at their first pit stop. He also steadfastly doesn’t think about how nice it would be to have Karkat taking care of him like this every day, to take care of him in return. No sir, no unrequited crushes happening here, just one dude eating a sandwich that another dude happened to pay for. Situation’s so platonic Dave half expects it to start writing down a Socratic dialogue. Fuckin’ nailed that metaphor, hell yeah.

Then, as if Dave wasn’t already struggling enough to keep his feelings under control, Karkat actually _falls asleep_ next to him. Jesus christ. It doesn’t mean anything, Dave _knows_ it doesn’t, but he still can’t help bristling defensively at anyone who walks past them down the aisle, as if he has any right to be protective over Karkat. Guiltily, he lets himself enjoy Karkat’s scent too, which has been lowkey driving him crazy all day. He tries to distract himself by paying attention to his music instead of the way Karkat’s teeth sink into his plush lower lip, or how cute and grumpy he looks even when he’s unconscious.

Karkat sleeps soundly at first, but after a while he starts making little high-pitched whining sounds in his sleep, as if he’s scared or in pain. This certainly doesn’t do anything to soothe Dave’s already on-edge nerves, and even though Karkat’s not being loud or disruptive--honestly, Dave’s probably the only one who can even hear him--he opts to wake him up anyway, just to make those heart-wrenching noises stop.

Fortunately Karkat’s not mad about being woken up. Less fortunately, however, he takes off his fucking sweatshirt, and his already-strong scent floods the air until Dave’s practically choking on it.

At first, Dave thinks he’s imagining it, but as time passes it becomes more evident that there’s a secondary aroma underneath Karkat’s usual scent. It’s sweet and delicious and Dave’s pretty sure it’s coming from Karkat, but he doesn’t know what it is. Maybe some kind of food poisoning pheromone response?

After a while longer, he notices that Karkat keeps fidgeting and shifting in his chair, like he can’t get comfortable or something.

“Dude, are you okay? Do you have to go use the bathroom or something? I don’t want your food poisoned ass exploding all over the seat.” Fucking christ, why is it that every time he opens his mouth around Karkat, whatever comes out ends up being horrifically un-romantic??

Karkat flushes. “Shut up, I told you I don’t have fucking food poisoning! I’m fine, just leave it.”

“You don’t seem fine,” Dave says. “You kinda seem like either that seat is way more uncomfortable than it looks, or you’re having some kind of serious intestinal distress. It’s ok, man, you don’t have to hide it from me, I promise I won’t even say I told you so.”

“Just fucking drop it, Dave. Please.” Karkat’s voice cracks on the last word and he turns away to face out the window. Whatever dumbass remark Dave was about to make dies in his throat when he realizes Karkat’s shoulders are shaking. Oh fuck, is he crying??

A distressed whine escapes Dave’s throat before he can stifle it, and he wracks his brain to come up with an excuse. Before he can say anything, though, Karkat responds with a whine of his own and ducks his head down.

Okay. What? What the fuck?

Dave frowns and puts a hand on Karkat’s shoulder. He feels so small and fragile, and Dave is overcome with a sudden urge to curl over him and protect him and-- no, fuck, _stop it_. He shakes his head, trying to clear it. “Seriously, Karkat, what the fuck is wrong? Are you sick? Do you need me to make the bus driver take us to a hospital or something?”

He has no idea if that’s a thing they’d even do, but for Karkat’s sake he’d make it happen one way or a-fucking-nother.

“No, fuck you, I’m fine,” Karkat grits out.

Karkat is clearly _not_ fine. He’s panting and shaking, and Dave can feel how warm he is even through his t-shirt, before Karkat groans and pushes his hand away. The strange sweet smell has grown even stronger, making Dave’s mouth water, and he swallows, anxious and unsure what to do.


End file.
